CH 23

Chapter 23: The tiger1 arrives~ (1)

Lai You was startled at first and her brain went blank. But when she understood the meaning behind her agent’s words, panic spread all over and she tried to explain herself in a hurry: “Sister Wu, I know I didn’t do a good job, but if you give me another chance…”

She paused slightly, trying to think quickly about what to say. She finally gritted her teeth and promised: “First public performance! If you let me perform, I will definitely make a comeback! And if my stage is not satisfactory, I will voluntarily quit!”

Sister Wu had no intention of letting Lai You quit the show right now, she just wanted to knock her off her high horse. After all, the show had not even officially aired and Galaxy had not absorbed enough heat just yet; she would just have been breaking her own arm if she were to pull Lai You back, even if she wasn’t very optimistic about her. She would at least have to wait until the show started. And the first performance would happen one week after it had; calculating the time, this was not a bad compromise.

“Okay, I will give you a chance. I will see the results during the first stage.” Sister Wu’s tone was a little more polite than before, but she still sounded cold. Before she hung up the phone, she added: “Don’t go find trouble with Qiao Dai anymore. The agency will help you solve the lawn sprinkler matter, but you should know better.”

Lai You was almost plucking her hair and did not dare to say anything else. She could only listen to her agent, her mind in turmoil.

When the call ended, she was already drenched in cold sweat; her face was as white as paper, her body was shaking and it took her a while to finally calm down. What on earth was going on? 

Lai You frowned and took her phone out to search for related news. She quickly found out netizens had stated they wanted to find out what had really happened; people were carefully studying all the shooting highlights the program had already uploaded. Added to that the photos taken by some players and posted on social platforms, they had successfully determined the girls’ shooting order and localized all of them when the accident had happened.

[Lu Ying was in the group after Daidai. From her pictures, we know that she was still in the dressing room when the water went on with eight other little sisters. They can all be ruled out.]

[When the device went on, there was a group of players that had already been done and they were captured on camera by Daidai’s PD in the background. They were all walking from the opposite direction of the lawn sprinkler, they can also all be ruled out.]

Qiao Dai’s fans were like Sherlock Holmes. They were carefully watching every piece of evidence one by one, and, at the end, they were certain that the only person that could not be localized during the accident had been Lai You; she directly became the number one suspect.

By this point, the vast majority already believed that the incident was definitely related to Lai You, but they didn’t want to make a big deal out of it; there had been no loss in the end. But when a video from a staff member went online, they changed their minds.

The video had recorded the exact scene the device had been turned on. Right after the water was sprayed everywhere, everybody on site had been shouting and surprised. The staff had rushed to check the situation, while the girls had been frozen in place; only Lai You, who was filmed for a short second, was standing next to the switch. She turned her head to look around and went in the opposite direction without saying a word.

With this recording, Qiao Dai’s fans exploded.

[Does this count as being caught in the act?]

[I don’t believe it’s a coincidence the lawn sprinkler went on just after Lai You walked to it.]

[She didn’t say anything to the other girls that got wet, vaguely looked around, and left. Even with no guilty conscience, that’s a bit too indifferent, isn’t it?]

The negative opinion exploded in an instant. At first, Lai You’s fans tried to defend her, saying there was no evidence, but when the short video was released and shared all around, they could no longer control the comments. Now, even fans of other Galaxy members expressed they wanted their sisters to stay away from Lai You. After all, they were all watching the women team’s draft, no one wanted indifferent and selfish members in the team, no?

Lai You didn’t know how she managed to read it to the end and she was stunned for a long time. She stood alone in the corridor, her mind blank, and only the light of her phone brightened her face in the dark. It looked a bit horrified. 

At this moment, a girl from the next room opened the door and walked out. She was caught off guard when she saw a shadow standing on one side.

“Lai You, is that you?”

When she saw it was Lai You, the girl’s heartbeat faster and her gaze instinctively glanced at the phone in her hand. Lai You panicked, turned the screen off, and as she was about to say something, the girl smiled and said: “I know, you don’t have to say anything.” 

She smiled gently, closed the food, and walked out of the corridor as she had not seen anything.

Know? Know what?

Lai You’s mood did not increase. On the contrary, she felt even more irritated and wished to go directly on the Internet to chat with those netizens. What did these people know? It had been an accident, why were they portraying her as a scheming villain?

But now, she didn’t even have the strength anymore. She did not expect she would be so unlucky and fall out of favor. Since the first recording, she had been going downhill; others were getting fans and only she was getting haters.

Both regret and anger invaded her heart. She just could not figure out why a trainee like her, from Galaxy, would lose to a newcomer like Qiao Dai. Her expression changed and she bit her lip before finally returned to her room without saying a word. Her ugly complexion caught her roommates’ glances but no one spoke and the atmosphere became very tense.

But wait, she would turn around during the first public performance! Lai You took a deep breath and crumpled all of the bad emotions into a ball and forced it down her heart. As soon as she could show her strength, her fans would still choose her as they always had.

All of her losses so far were just because she had failed to show off her true abilities.

Thinking of this, Lai You could not help but complain about Ruan Tao in her heart. Had she known what would happen, she would not have agreed to Ruan Tao’s proposal.

If it hadn’t for letting Ruan Tao steal the spotlight, the rest of the Galaxy trainees would not have become like this; they had given up the opportunity to shine during the first performance and cut their own way of survival. Next time, Lai You would not give any chance to make herself stand out, otherwise she would end up being eliminated.

Chapter 23: The tiger arrives~ (2)

Right after the photoshoot was over, the contestants had to face the upcoming public performance. This performance was not only the first time the players would dance in front of fans but also the first round of elimination. In the end, Class F would be cut off, which meant that thirty girls would leave the <Pick Eleven> program.

Every time anyone thought about promotion and elimination, their emotions inevitably became tense and all over the place; everyone redoubled their efforts in training, practicing the theme song of the show. This would be the only opportunity for all 101 players to perform collectively.

Today, Jiang Fengchi went to Class A. Celebrity mentors like him had their own schedules, therefore, the chances of him joining training were few and far between. But as long as he came, it meant heat and exposure; every girl tried their best to look good when he was there.

That day, Jiang Fengchi came to the classroom of Class A without notifying anyone in advance. He wanted to see the girls’ true faces, like, for example, who would come first to practice.

He had just finished recording a program abroad and had just got off the plane; he had immediately rushed to the program and was now quietly waiting for the players in the classroom.

At this moment, Jiang Fengchi was the only one in the huge room. He was sitting on a chair and felt a little sleepy. He put his arms on the armrests, held his head with his hand, and closed his eyes.

He didn’t know when he fell asleep but he heard the sound of footsteps. He opened his eyes and saw Qiao Dai standing in front of him, a bun still in her mouth. It was only 6 in the morning.

“Are you already here?”

Jiang Fengchi was a little surprised, he had not expected the first player to come to practice would be Qiao Dai. After all, since the first self-introduction, Qiao Dai had seemed to be someone either playing or dozing off.

Qiao Dai nodded and quickly finished eating her bun. She wiped her hands and turned to look at Jiang Fengchi before asking: “Can I practice here?”

“Of course.”

Jiang Fengchi answered but as he was about to chat more with Qiao Dai, he saw her walk to the mirror, put her phone on the ground, and watched the dancers demonstrate on the screen before imitating them in her turn.

Seeing this, Jiang Fengchi swallowed what he had wanted to say, afraid to disturb Qiao Dai’s training. He watched for a while and became more and more sure Qiao Dai’s physical fitness was excellent, both flexible and powerful, which allowed her to make dance moves other players may not be able to. 

“You are very talented.” Jiang Fengchi said softly as soon as the girl took a break. His eyes fell on her and he asked with curiosity: “I looked at your resume and you had no dance experience. Did you learn privately or did you do any other kind of sports?”

Qiao Dai smiled with a bit of a guilty conscience after hearing Jiang Fengchi’s question and replied quietly: “Does swimming count?”

The young man raised his eyebrows slightly when he heard her answer. It turned out to be swimming, it wasn’t surprising.

It was getting late and other players came to the classroom one after another. Jiang Fengchi stopped chatting with Qiao Dai and returned to his seat. The class was starting.

Jiang Fengchi demonstrated several dance moves for the theme songs and gave specific suggestions to each contestant. Time passed and when the class was about to end, he noticed that the emotions of the players were inexplicably high, several of them dancing wrong. He thought for a while and realized that today the official portraits would be uploaded on the website. Most of the girls were only 18 or 19 years old, in this situation, it was inevitable they would become excited.

“Okay, let’s stop here for today.”

Jiang Fengchi was not an unreasonable mentor and he dismissed the class early so that the girls could go back to their dormitories to check the photos.

“Thank you, Teacher Jiang!”

Leaving the building, Jiang Fengchi got into his car and took out his phone before clicking on the official website. Perhaps because many people were rushing to watch the excitement, the response of the page was a bit slow. But after a while, the pictures finally appeared.

Jiang Fengchi’s gaze swept across the screen and as he reached a specific name, his brows furrowed. What was going on?

His agent had just told the driver to go when he heard Jiang Fengchi suddenly shout in the back: “Wait a minute! Don’t leave yet!”

“Fengchi, what’s the matter with you?” The agent was confused but quickly waved to signal the driver to stop the car. He turned back the next second to his artist but Jiang Fengchi was already gone and the door was wide open.

***

At the same time, in the dormitories, the contestants were also gathered in groups of two or three, constantly refreshing the website and their own portraits. Many fans were already commenting all over the Internet.

[Wow, everyone is looking good!]

[Ruan Tao really killed me with her face!]

[Song Song looks so awesome!]

“What the heck? Why is nobody mentioning our ocean group?” 

Lu Ying had brought her iPad to the Class A dormitory after class to look for Qiao Dai. She enjoyed reading the comments of netizens more than looking at the photos and she had long believed that Qiao Dai’s portrait would surprise everyone. Because of that, she had been paying close attention to whether anyone mentioned Qiao Dao but ended up quite startled: after reading dozens of Weibo posts, nobody was talking about her.

This made Lu Ying rather puzzled, thinking that it should not be the case. When the footage of Qiao Dai being drenched in the water had been shared, she had been all over the hot search. It didn’t make sense that no one discussed her photo now.

Song Yiqi happened to come to the Class A dormitory too when she heard Lu Ying. She quickly swiped down the voting page but when she reached Qiao Dai’s name, her eyebrows raised. Lu Ying was about to continue to complain when she heard Song Yiqi’s clear voice: “No need to keep searching, look.”

Lu Ying raised her head and saw Song Yiqi hand the tablet over to her. On the screen was the voting page and in the middle of the page, the column with Qiao Dai’s name was empty. Among so many players, only Qiao Dai’s photo was missing.

Everyone realized something was wrong, only Qiao Dai seemed lost, looking at the people around her in confusion, hoping that one of them would give her an answer. Lu Ying promptly tried to loosen the atmosphere and laughed: “Stupid website mustn’t be able to function with all the people looking at Daidai. It must be stuck and will be fine after a while.”

Song Yiqi, on the other hand, looked thoughtful. She rolled her beautiful eyes and turned around to look at Qiao Dai.

“The day of the shooting, did any staff member give you contact information?”

Luan Zhen’s face slightly changed when she heard her. She frowned and said tentatively: “Do you think…”

Song Yiqi’s elbows were resting on the table, her chin in the palm of her hands. She nodded at Luan Zhen and with a hint of amusement, she said: “If you have, call them and ask what is happening.”

Although Qiao Dai did not understand what was the problem, looking at the girls’ expression, she rushed to her room to find the business card Yan Lang had given her before calling the number on it.

***

With a splash, the originally calm water of the pool suddenly broke into waves and spread out quickly. A man was swimming, his figure like a sharp sword, agile and athletic. He looked like a powerful beast lurking in the blue waters.

Cheng Su had already swum back and forth in the pool several times. It could be said that today, his mood was not very good and even his favorite hobby could not alleviate it at the moment. Left with an unsatisfactory feeling, after a few more laps, the man swam back to the side of the pool and got out, the ice-cold water falling down his body.

“Where is Yan Lang?”

Cheng Su frowned slightly and stretched out his hand to casually stroke his wet hair. His facial features appeared more clearly and crystal drops of water fell from his cheeks to his chest.

The man had wide shoulders, a narrow waist, and well-defined muscles, showing his smooth yet rugged physique and clear lines. He took the towel handed by his assistant and wiped his hair carelessly while asking why Yan Lang, who was supposed to report, was still nowhere to be seen.

The assistant truly wanted to disappear. The boss was not a good-tempered person to begin with and it was worse in the summer. He would usually need to spend two months on his private island to be in a better mood.

Unfortunately, due to special circumstances this year, traveling between countries was very inconvenient and his vacation had been canceled. Because of that, Mr. Cheng felt irritable on a daily basis and his staff did not dare to offend him. But at this time, Yan Lang was making him wait and the assistant felt his blood run cold.

“Director Yan seems to have a bit of a dispute with the Communication Department.” The assistant answered with caution and secretly glanced at his boss’s sullen expression before asking with some hesitation: “Would you like me to call and ask?”

“No need.”

Cheng Su took a deep breath, dropped the towel on the back of the chair, and said in a deep voice: “I will go ask him personally what is going on.”